The Ace Black Movie Blog

Showing posts with label Catherine O'Hara. Show all posts

Wednesday, 10 July 2024

Movie Review: Best In Show (2000)

Genre: Mockumentary

Director: Christopher Guest

Starring: Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Parker Posey

Running Time: 90 minutes

Synopsis: Dog owners across the United States are getting ready for the annual Mayflower Dog Show in Philadelphia. Leading contenders include dogs owned by Florida couple Gerry and Cookie (Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara), stressed-out yuppies Meg and Hamilton (Parker Posey and Michael Hitchcock), trophy wife Sheri Ann and her dog handler Christy (Jennifer Coolidge and Jane Lynch), gay partners Scott and Stefan (John Michael Higgins and Michael McKean), and fishing aficionado/aspiring ventriloquist Harlan Pepper (Christopher Guest). Once the competition starts, anxiety levels rise as the contestants navigate unexpected mishaps.

What Works Well: This faux documentary takes aim at the bizarre world of dog shows, and delivers a slice of Americana drawn from society's arcane corners. From Harlan's swamp to Sheri Ann's mansion, dogs are the equalizers in a competition without non-subjective rules. The scattershot comedy approach occasionally hits the intended targets, with cluelessly dysfunctional couple Meg and Hamilton generating the most effective chuckles.

What Does Not Work As Well: With the dogs sidelined into bewildered observers of their owners' eccentricities, the humour bounces along at average levels in a futile search for stand-out moments. An over-emphasis on sex is a diminishing reservoir for laughs, as exemplified by Cookie's over-played history of vigorous coupling. In the final act, the show's master of ceremonies overindulges in uninformed boorishness.

Conclusion: Both the dogs and their owners put on a show, but the dogs are much more dignified.

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Sunday, 12 November 2023

Movie Review: Pain Hustlers (2023)

Genre: Business Drama

Director: David Yates

Starring: Emily Blunt, Chris Evans, Andy Garcia, Catherine O'Hara, Jay Duplass

Running Time: 123 minutes

Synopsis: In Florida of 2011, single mom Liza Drake (Emily Blunt) is financially struggling to look after herself and her daughter Phoebe. She accepts an offer from executive Pete Brenner (Chris Evans) to join fledgling pharmaceutical firm Zanna. The company's one approved product is Lonafen, a fentanyl-based cancer pain medication developed by owner Dr. Neel (Andy Garcia). Liza's hustle snares the prescription business of Dr. Lydell (Brian D'Arcy James), and soon the big money starts rolling in. Neel's behaviour becomes more eccentric, while Liza and Pete push the limits in incentivizing doctors to prescribe the medication.

What Works Well: Inspired by actual events at Insys Therapeutics chronicled in Evan Hughes' book, this is a glossy inside look at the scuzzy profits-before-people pharmaceutical industry. Adopting some of the jovial tones from The Wolf Of Wall Street, director David Yates crafts a compelling and fast-paced rags-to-riches business story built on the hustle to sell product - in this case a synthetic opioid approved for sale based on dubious studies. Emily Blunt is excellent in personifying the greed version of the American Dream, as Liza builds a team of dropouts - including her mother (Catherine O'Hara) - snaring third-tier doctors happy to take a cut in the form of "appearance fees".

What Does Not Work As Well: It's all fun and games until someone dies, and here the victims are a sketched-in afterthought. Blunt is asked to carry the entire dramatic load, as Dr. Neel quickly devolves into a cartoon character and Chris Evans is unable to find a real person in the lightweight Pete Brenner. The portrayal of Liza's relationship with her mother is scrappy at best.

Conclusion: Sickness and suffering as an opportunity for slick success.

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Wednesday, 25 December 2019

Movie Review: Home Alone (1990)

A family Christmas comedy, Home Alone strikes all the right tones in a tale of a kid forgotten behind at the most magical time of year.

In a Chicago suburb, the McCallister family prepares for a Christmas vacation trip to Paris. Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) is the smart but exasperating eight year old youngest son, generally overlooked by his parents Kate and Peter (Catherine O'Hara and John Heard) and tormented by his siblings. With the family chaotically extended by the presence of Kevin's ornery uncle and his brood, no one notices burglar Harry Lyme (Joe Pesci) disguised as a police officer scoping the soon-to-be-empty house.

In the travel day rush the family bundles off to the airport and then onto the plane with Kevin forgotten home alone. He has to fend for himself, keeping a wary eye on spooky neighbour Marly (Roberts Blossom), and gradually realizes Harry and his partner Marv (Daniel Stern) are intent on burglarizing the house. On the plane Kate awakens to her blunder, and once in Paris immediately starts the long trip back. But unscheduled travel arrangements during the Holidays will prove a challenge.

Writer and producer John Hughes turns his attention away from teenagers and towards the younger kids. Maintaining his sharp wit and ear to the ground, Hughes conjures up a Christmas classic in a story where be-careful-what-you-wish-for applies to both the kids and adults.

In the lead up to the Paris trip Kevin makes a nuisance of himself by just being a kid, but his unintended mess results in hot emotions and sharp words. Kate banishes him to the attic, out of sight and out of mind, and Kevin wishes his whole family would just disappear already. Both their wishes come true, as the next morning the family is free of Kevin's presence and he awakens to an empty house, sure he was responsible for everyone's disappearance.

With director Chris Columbus capably translating Hughes' vision to the screen, what follows is a journey of redemption for Kate, and she has to overcome every conceivable travel nightmare to make it back to her son as soon as possible. Her trip will include a travel leg in a U-Haul van with John Candy's legendary (sort of) polka band, Hughes elegantly tying Home Alone with 1987's Planes, Trains And Automobiles.

Meantime Kevin is growing up in a hurry, confronting fears including the boiler in the basement and the mysterious neighbour-with-the-shovel. But worse is to come, the bumbling burglar duo of Harry and Marv absolutely intent on hitting the prized McCallister house (Hughes never quite explains how this family came to live in a luxurious mansion). Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern are admirably dedicated to the doofus antagonists roles, and add immeasurably to the film's madcap physical humour.

Home Alone reaches a quite hilarious climax with Kevin concocting a defence of the house to thwart and humiliate the robbers at every turn, in the hope help will arrive in a true Christmas miracle. Here Hughes even manages a nod to the intervention by the misunderstood next-door presence from To Kill A Mockingbird territory.

With Columbus cajoling a superlative and ridiculously appealing performance out of young Macaulay Culkin, Home Alone ticks along in perfect harmony with the spirit of personal growth through family appreciation, laughing all the way.